Lubbock rally protests allowing gay Boy Scouts

Eagle Scout Arlan Womble and is wife Barbara Womble stand outside the South Plains Council of Boy Scouts Friday to oppose a resolution by the Boy Scouts of America allowing open homosexual boys in the program.

LUBBOCK - With more than 70 years as a Boy Scout under his belt, Arlan Womble cherishes the life lessons the organization instilled in his life.

Learning about homosexuality wasn’t part of the experience, he said.

“I liked the camaraderie, the camping and the fellowship,” the 84-year-old said. “I think it’s the best training a kid could get — training to be an adult.”

But Womble said he wouldn’t have earned his Eagle Scout designation in 1944 or even joined the Boy Scouts had the organization admitted gays among its ranks — a decision now before the national organization’s leadership.

“I think it would be very wrong to open the organization to that,” he said. “I don’t think it ought to be there at all.”

Womble was among a group of about 30 Lubbock citizens and families with children in the Boy Scouts of America who rallied Friday against allowing openly gay boys from serving as members of the organization.

The Lubbock On My Honor group, named after a national website and effort to protest changing the policy, rallied in front of the South Plains Council Boy Scouts office to encourage the community to reach out to the area council and urge leaders to vote against lifting the ban, said organizer Scott Scarborough.

Scarborough, a parent of a scout and volunteer for the organization, said he and other parents are concerned allowing gays to openly participate in the organization would interject discussions about sexuality — and possibly more than that — into the organization.

“This will inevitably result in boy-on-boy sexual contact,” Scarborough said. “I’m not going to be a part of a program that lets its own members hurt other members.”

Scarborough said maintaining the organization’s policy is not an act of intolerance, but a move to keep discussions of sexuality out of the Boy Scouts.

“These are discussions parents should be having with their children, not an organization,” he said.

He likened the Boy Scouts’ current stance to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy recently disbanded by the U.S. military.

Grace Rogers, president of Lubbock’s chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, recalled being the parent of gay and straight sons who went through the Boy Scouts.

“It didn’t seem to make any difference at the time,” she said. “They weren’t out at the time, but I thought a Boy Scout was suppose to be truthful — be truthful to themselves.

“It’s sad when we discriminate against those who I consider to be children.”

Womble’s wife, Barbara, said the question of accepting gays into the organization comes down to faith, noting the second line of the Boy Scout oath is: “To do my duty to God and my country.”

“God’s laws are definitely not for homosexuality,” she said.

In an statement he emailed to A-J Media late Thursday, South Plains Council executive and CEO Nathan Baie said the Boy Scouts recently completed “the most comprehensive listening exercise in its history, gathering perspectives from inside and outside of the Scouting family” regarding the role gays can play in the organization.

Based on this feedback, he said, the Boy Scouts of America wrote a resolution for consideration which maintains the current membership policy for all adult leaders of the Boy Scouts of America and would remove the restriction denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone.

This resolution does not prevent children who sincerely want to be a part of scouting from experiencing this life-changing program and remains true to the long-standing virtues of scouting.

The 1,400 voting members of the National Council will vote on this proposal on May 23 in Grapevine.

“Some people involved in Scouting and others have expressed their disagreement with this single policy, or this proposed change, in a variety of ways,” Baie said in the statement. “We respect everyone’s right to express an opinion, and we believe our disagreements are minor compared to our shared vision and common goals.”

He added: “While people have different opinions about this policy proposal, they can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting. Going forward, we will work to stay focused on that which unites us.”

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You don't have to be gay to understand this, you just have to be a decent person.

No one is saying there should be a homosexual badge in boy scouts. These morons that think that is what they are pushing for lack common sense and human decency. All they are asking. And I mean all! Is that you don't kick out people for being gay and you allow people to join or help despite knowing that they are gay. They aren't asking for a parade, they aren't asking that you talk about it. They are very simply, very, very simply asking don't omit gay people just because they are gay. Get that through your very dim witted heads.

You know, sometimes I am convinced that there is a "Panhandle Bubble" up there that somehow filters foreign influences, such as literacy, out of the region, and causes people's eyesight to run about 30-50 years behind the times.

I always thought it was because we had too much lithium in the water but when we started drinking Lake Meredith water there went that theory. Maybe it's the wind that makes people in the panhandle think in reverse. Even the birds fly backwards sometimes.

As long as you hide or lie about your sexual identity or sexual preference, you can be a member.
As long as the BSA doesn't know you are gay, then you can be a member. But if they find out, you are out the door. So now the BSA supports being deceitful. What a great trait to teach young men.

Jmav, the BSA does not have a "sexual identity" merit badge or "sexual preference" question on the membership application. The whole issue is about there being appropriate time and place for everything, and the BSA is not an appropriate time or place for that discussion. I was a member and a leader for well over twenty years. I never had a sexual preference or identity discussion and was not being the least bit deceitful.